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… guilty of torching his children to death
By CAROLINE KALOMBE
THE Lusaka High Court has sentenced Pemphani Zulu to death by hanging for brutally burning his two children to death.
This is in a matter in which Zulu is charged with two counts of murder contrary to Section 200 of the Penal Code of the Laws of Zambia.
In delivering his judgement yesterday, Judge Justin Chashi said he had taken into consideration all the evidence brought to court and that there was no doubt that Zulu was at the crime scene.
“I convict the accused person on both murders and I place you on the mandatory sentence of death. He needs to hang by the neck until pronounced dead. The sentence is to be executed concurrently,” Justice Chashi said.
Justice Chashi said witnesses had attested that they saw the children crying in the house while burning; that they said their father had poured petrol on them; and that he locked them in the house and lit the room by throwing fire through a window.
Justice Chashi said the children later said their father had given them food, soft drinks and beer and told them to eat as that was the last time they would eat together because they were going to die.
Justice Chashi said the children knew their father and they had no reason to falsely accuse him.
“In my view, there was no concoction or distortion of the incidence to advantage the children or disadvantage the accused person. “There was no lapse in time for the children to narrate what happened and the experience was startling and dramatic. The children narrated what had happened to them,” he said.
He said Zulu failed to explain his whereabouts but that he vanished and was later apprehended at his sister’s house in Chipata.
Justice Chashi said Zulu’s alibi was an afterthought because he could not leave the children alone without letting his wife or his in-laws know that he would go away for seven days.
He said Zulu had also threatened his wife two weeks prior to the burning incident and that he showed no sympathy.
“The alibi was not raised at an earlier time which would have allowed the police to investigate the alibi. His lawyer was also not aware of the said alibi,” Justice Chashi said.
The two children aged eight and five, sustained third and fourth degree burns.
